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Things I learned over Christmas

When packing your craft projects for the holiday travels, make sure you don’t just pack stuff for project A, but also for project B and project C. Because it might happen that when you arrive to your granny’s house, and want to happily knit away on that mohair lace shawl you’ve been working on, you might discover that the yarn has mysteriously gone missing. But you can’t possibly spend all those holidays without doing anything. So, it is great to start working on a pair of forest green bubbly mittens. And then on a pair of pink bubbly mittens. And then come home and discover your ball of mohair on the stairs, loyally waiting for your return. (I know, I am such a careless yarn parent, I should not have custody of any yarn, I’m sorry!!!)

Lesson no 2 – new patterns and champagne don’t mix

Our extended family extends beyond blood ties, but what is common to us is that we all enjoy a glass or two of champagne before dinner during the festive season. Those who know me can attest that I have no problem working on simpler patterns and having a glass of wine at the same time. However, if one is knitting mittens for the first time, one should definitely stay away from all spirit-raising drinks (and that includes coffee). This is how the knitting of the forest green mittens really went:

Day 1: start knitting, try not to be distracted by family conversations and champagne, get to the thumb and then undo everything because the mittens are too wide.

Day 2: start knitting again, try not to be distracted by family conversations (especially when they make jokes about you undoing your mittens) and champagne, get done halfway and then undo everything down to the thumb, because somehow you ended up with two right-hand mittens. Then continue knitting, try not to be distracted by your family laughing even harder, and knit almost to the tip of the mittens, and undo a big part again, because there is a different amount of bubbles on the mittens.

Day 3: continue knitting, try not be distracted by your family making bets on how soon you’ll start undoing things again, and champagne, and victoriously finish your mittens and show off to all family members.

Days 4-5: work on a pair of pink mittens while remembering all the lessons from the past 3 days!